Exposing Brit-Nat scremongering as it happens

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Last October, it was impossible to find a pub or restaurant in Inverness which wasn’t full of people wearing yellow passes during the SNP conference. Everywhere you looked, there were delegates eating, shopping having a drink or just sightseeing.

This weekend however it’s a very different story, as you’d never know the LibDems were even around, let along holding a conference at the same venue the SNP filled 5 months previously. The very occasional pass has been spotted around town, and there are two possible reasons for this: it’s a badge of shame, given the party jumped into bed with the Tories for a sniff of power; or there’s basically hardly anyone there. We’d suggest both are correct, backed up on no small way by the vast number of empty blue seats visible in the TV coverage of the event.

Labour too are struggling to get bums on seats, and that’s at Dundee’s Caird Hall which is even smaller than Inverness’ Eden Court! Bit odd the pair of them arranging conferences at the same time, and yet they expect us to trust them with organising the country? Anyway, the sight of Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg addressing their patchy faithful raised a few chuckles at Hijacked Towers, we have to admit. Almost as funny as the pair’s woefully poor addresses, reiterating the “too wee, too poor, too stupid” mantra do beloved by the BritNats.

So what have the BritNat papers been saying about it all? Let’s begin as ever with The Scotsman:

As you can see, the papers are pretty much full of all the same stuff, so we’ll close today with a very funny article – complete with pictures – from Wings over Scotland, which eloquently summarises everything the BritNat press won’t let you know about:

So, after posh boy David Cameron gracing the northern province with his presence 3 weeks ago, today we welcome another English toff. British Labour leader Ed Miliband is making a wannabe state visit to talk down to his faithful quisling masses about North Britain having such grandiose ideas above its station. Cue the rapturous applause as the dwindling delegate numbers nod enthusiastically. Caps-in-hand, naturally.

So what does The Scotsman have to say about it all? Expect a few days of Über Nat-bashing:

The Guardian highlights the complete failure of Johann Lamont as an effective Labour leader in Scotland, as it focuses on comment from one of its London-based “big guns” in the form of Douglas Alexander:

And now, we’ve saved the best till last. As the Tartan Red(ish) Tories are having a jolly this week in Dundee, we thought we’d let you see what level of spin the North British Labour Party have been putting on various recent events. Move over Hans Christian Andersen:

Apologies to our regular readers for no Union Hijacked appearing yesterday, but unfortunately antisocial working hours sometimes take their toll. However, we’re back again and looking at The Scotsman first as usual. It hasn’t let us down:

The Labour Daily Record is also back on form after its brief Eric Joyce hiatus, singing from the Scotsman’s hymn book as well as having another unsubtle dig at its arch media and political rivals. Terrified the media will no longer bury independence in its hidden pages for fear of people knowing exactly what’s been going on?:

The London-based BBC also joins the chorus of terrified BritNats desperately trying to coerce undecided voters into going for the Westminster controlled kid-on Independence of “Devo Plus”. Completely failing once again to publicise ant of the myriad of positive reasons for Scotland to stand on its own two feet:

Well after a relatively quiet weekend, the usual BritNat suspects were back this morning with some gusto. As ever the Tory rag of choice, The Scotsman, was doing its best to man the imperial barricades against the dreadful native uprising:

Labour’s Daily Record meanwhile takes a brief rest from desperately distancing itself from shamed Labour MP Eric Joyce by jumping on The Scotsman’s bandwagon, as well as grabbing the chance to take a pop at its arch nemesis:

Today sees the launch of a Sunday version of The Sun, presumably as a replacement for the discredited News of the World.

In recent days owner Rupert Murdoch has been making noises suggesting support for Scottish independence. The paper itself once famously backed the cause, but that was more likely a plan to hit the Labour supporting Daily Record with a tit-for-tat cheap shot. Its infamous ‘noose’ front page graphic before the last election pretty much confirmed its complete BritNat U-turn.

So this morning’s Scottish edition leads with its prediction of a referendum date of 18 October 2014, along with its reasons why. Its editorial also hints at support for independence, but being The Sun, we’ll take whatever it says with good dose of salt:

No surprises however from the misnomer that is the Scotland on Sunday, as it somehow manages to suggest that Scottish independence will be bad for the environment. No, we don’t understand that one either:

Yesterday The Scotsman trumpeted about the “think tank” it claimed was questioning the Scottish Government’s figures on potential North Sea oil revenue. And gleefully trumpeted at that. Well today we discover the author of this outstanding diatribe of BritNat propaganda was none other than Jo Armstrong, a former advisor to former Labour First Minister Jack McConnell and a champion of privatisation and PFI/PPP.

So do we see any admission this morning from Scotsman HQ? Nae chance! Just more grinding negativity:

Now we also have to admit to a degree of surprise today on reading the Daily Record. It seem to have done a U-turn on its previous policy of hiding bad news for the Labour Party in its middle pages, by now be adopting a defensive strategy of open admission regarding the whole Eric Joyce MP fiasco. The headline took us all by surprise at Union Hijacked Towers:

We recall the pre-devolution days when Scotland’s largest private employer, Standard Life, threatened to pull out and relocate south should Scotland vote yes. Suffice to say, it didn’t. Nor did the country fall off the edge of the world as other scaremongerers suggested.

Today, we see SSE (Scottish and Southern Energy – or the SSEB if you’re ‘old school’) is offering its own thinly veiled threats in the run-up to the independence referendum. The Scotsman, naturally, picked up on this earlier, but so now has The Telegraph: